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I snapped awake, my heart in my throat, put there by the awful pressure rising in my chest. “Leela, look at me.” Araz came into focus, his face etched in moonlight, drawn in lines of concern. “You were dreaming.” I clung to him, pressing my face to his chest, as the turmoil of emotions that the dreaming had churned up rushed through me. He tensed for a moment, and the part of my brain that had sense whispered for me to release him, but another part that still lingered in the land of nod refused to listen, because this, in his arms, was safe. His chest vibrated against me, and he relaxed, folding me in a hug and carefully adjusting me so that I was tucked against his side. “You’re safe now,” he said into the darkness. “Nightmares cannot hurt you. Just breathe and come back to the waking world.” I inhaled him, allowing his scent to soothe me, and eventually the remnants of the battlefield faded, leaving nothing but an echo of disquiet. “Better?” he asked. “If I say yes, will it mean you’ll push me away?” I sniffed and peered up at him. He looked down at me with topaz eyes burning with emotions I couldn’t fathom. I held my breath. He sighed again. “Not tonight, Leela. Tonight, we will share this moment. But tomorrow…I cannot be what you need.” “Tomorrow, you go back to avoiding me.” His grip on me tightened a fraction. “It has to be this way.” “Because you don’t want to be slave to a bond?” “Do you? To not know whether your feelings are real or fabricated by mystical forces? To be forced to remain in a place you do not wish and be bound to someone you have not chosen? Do you wish this?” “No. But it’s all I have. It’s all that’s been given to me since I was taken from my home, and you…” My stupid eyes were wet again. “You’re at the center of it. I’m not as strong as you are. I can’t just stop…feeling.” “You think I do not feel?” He shifted his body so that he was facing me, his face an intense mask of torment. “You think I do not ache to touch. To kiss…” He traced my lips with the tip of his finger, and my stomach flipped hard. “But it will bring nothing but pain.” His face was so close now that one tilt of my chin would allow me to taste his mouth. ”Nothing but pain if we take that path…” My eyes slipped closed as his breath ghosted over my lips. “For the both of us.” Read Now with Kindle Unlimited!